Obama to be in Bay Area on Oct. 8

Updated 6:55 pm, Saturday, September 8, 2012

President Obama shakes hands with supporters after speaking at a fundraiser at the Fox Theater in Oakland, Calif., Monday, July 23, 2012.

President Obama shakes hands with supporters after speaking at a fundraiser at the Fox Theater in Oakland, Calif., Monday, July 23, 2012.

Photo: Sarah Rice, Special To The Chronicle

Obama to be in Bay Area on Oct. 8

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If you didn't get enough of President Obama this past week at the Democratic National Convention, he'll be in the neighborhood Oct. 8 for one more fundraising pitch before the election.

While details have yet to be worked out, we're told the fundraiser - Obama's eighth money-raising trip to the Bay Area since April 2011 - will be similar to an appearance he made at the Nob Hill Masonic Center in February. That event drew hundreds of small and high-end donors, and was part of a three-day California fundraising blitz that took in $8 million.

With California solidly in Obama's column, don't expect to see too much more of the president in these parts. The closest he'll get to campaigning in the Golden State will be when he shows up in the Silver State - Nevada - which both sides think they can win.

By the way, according to election filings compiled on OpenSecrets.org, Obama has mined $30.5 million in California to Republican nominee Mitt Romney's $17.5 million.

It's worth noting that the biggest single source of contributions to Obama's campaign nationwide - $491,868 - has been from employees or others affiliated with the University of California.

Family affair: Sources tell us it was Nadia Lockyer's own family members - frustrated over her refusal to seek treatment for her drug addiction - who blew the whistle on her alleged possession of methamphetamine.

The former Alameda County supervisor, wife of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, was staying with her sister in Orange County when police showed up at the home Aug. 28 and allegedly found her on a drug high, and in possession of meth and drug paraphernalia.

The Lockyers' 9-year-old son was with her, prosecutors say.

Nadia Lockyer was released to the custody of a drug treatment program - her second visit to rehab in a year - and has pleaded not guilty to a felony possession charge and three misdemeanors, including child abuse.

The Lockyers are in the process of getting divorced, but the arrest comes at an inopportune time for Bill Lockyer, who has been lobbying to be named chancellor of the California State University system.

He declined to comment, other than to tell us his son "is with me in the Bay Area and he's safe and in school, and I love (Nadia) and hope she will recover."

Ouch: For all the buildup, state Attorney General Kamala Harris' big appearance at the Democratic National Convention didn't go off as planned.

Convention bosses went back and forth with Harris' speechwriters in the week leading up to the convention, eventually cutting down her address to a serious - but not very emotional - six minutes.

"Let's just say that a lot of the points that connected with the public when she's given the speech before weren't there," said one Harris confidant, who asked not to be named.

The result: According to the Washington Post's The Fix column, Harris came out a loser, with a "low-key" speech that left the crowd "unsure of when to clap."

"Was Harris hurt by high expectations? Maybe," the Post said. "But she well underperformed what was expected."

Harris can take some consolation in the convention history of one of the party's biggest names. Bill Clinton, who wowed the crowd after Harris' flop, bombed in his first big convention speech back in 1988.

Water over the dam: San Francisco officials got two big boosts in their fight against Proposition F, the ballot measure that would order a study of restoring Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley to its former splendor.

The first came when Superior Court Judge Harold Kahnruled that the November measure should open with the question: "Shall the city prepare a two-phase plan that evaluates how to drain the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir so that it can be restored by the National Park Service and identifies replacement water and power sources?"

The key is having the word "drain" front and center - something that polling shows drops support for the measure by 10 points, down to 49 percent.

"I wonder who gave the foundation that $100,000, and what program is not being funded because they are giving it to a campaign," said Mike Marshall of the group Restore Hetch Hetchy, which is pushing the ballot measure.

"We make decisions about where grants go every day," said foundation spokeswoman Sara Ying Rounsaville. "Because of the far-reaching financial and environmental implications of removing the Hetch Hetchy dam, we are opposing Proposition F."

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